Gold nanoparticles-supported histamine-grafted monolithic capillaries as efficient microreactors for flow-through reduction of nitro-containing compounds

Hybrid microreactors consisting in 5, 20, 100 nm-sized gold nanoparticles immobilized on histamine grafted polymeric monoliths were successfully prepared, finely characterized and further applied to the catalytic reduction of nitro-derivatives.</p

Photochemically-Driven Methods for the &lt;i&gt;In Situ&lt;/i&gt; and Site-Specific Fabrication of Monolithic-Based Electrochromatographic Microsystems

This paper reports on the in-situ synthesis of reactive polymeric monolith and its subsequent surface functionalization. Poly (N-acryloyloxysuccinimide-co-ethylene dimethacrylate) was prepared through free radical photopolymerization of the respective monomers. The grafting procedure is based on the preliminary grafting of alkyne units on the monolith surface and the further radical photoaddition of functional thiol molecules. Implementation of UV-driven polymerization and grafting methods enabled the locally controlled immobilization of generic monolith within the confines of the capillary channel, and the site-specific immobilization of ligands on the pore surface of the monolith. Our results suggest that such a synthesis methodology is promising for integrating multiple analytical modules within microstructures for on-line analysis.</jats:p

Monoliths bearing hydrophilic surfaces for <i>in vitro</i> biomedical samples analysis

This contribution presents a condensed overview of strategies recently implemented to the synthesis of polymeric monoliths with well-defined surface characteristics with the aim to develop micro-sized permeable supports for flow-through separation applications in the context of life sciences. This review does not provide an exhaustive list of reported studies about the field, but it is rather intended to discuss about what caught our eyes in the literature within the last years. In this contribution, we present successively (a) what monoliths are and (b) the means to be implemented to evaluate their physico-chemical characteristics, (c) a discussion about hydrophilic and biocompatible monoliths, focusing on their preparation through both one step and multistep strategies together with their application as micro-column stationary phases for chromatography and electrochromatography. The type of separation modes expands from unique – hydrophilic interaction – to dual mixed-mode – involving a combination of hydrophilic interaction and ion-exchange. Finally, (d) future prospects relevant to the field are presented, exclusively considering nanoparticle-containing monoliths. </jats:p